Vampire of all trades (Guide)
Lord Erebus is too often overlooked demigod, and is the third less played demigod. Night walker minions of his seem to be poor, but instead of looking after the night walker skills, you can get every other skill of his. You also have 2 night walkers running around as a default. This will allow him to use the right skill in every situation, and this guide includes few tricks playing with Lord Erebus. I hope you find this useful. =Introduction= With all the four main skills and the great Poisoned Blood, Erebus has a plenty of tricks. I always keep Bite as the most important, as it can scare even UB away. It combined with Bat Swarm is effectly a 1500 dmg spike from a great distance. (Bite, BS, auto attack - 775+600+200=1575dmg) It is really annoying to note that a vampire just emerged in front of you and instantly killed you, and escapes your rampaging giant-army & friends with Mist, only to Batswarm away after a while. He can easily escape with Bat Swarm, and Lord Erebus really can move quickly in and out of battle. You can also kill other demigods with bite, and if they decide to run away too late, you can simply kill them with Bat Swarm + Bite combo. You also have interrupt, Mass charm, which despite long casting time can kill teleporting enemies if well timed. Later it also acts as a freeze, and can be used to make sure your friends doesn't try any tricks before your bite recharges to finish them off. =Character Development= The whole skill list The whole list of skills is: 1.Bite 2.Mist 3.Mass Charm 4.Bite 5.Poisoned Blood 6.Bat Swarm 7.Bite 8.Mist 9.Mist 10.Bite 11.Poisoned Blood 12.Bat Swarm 13.Mist 14.Save 15.Bloody Haze & Vampiric Aura 16.Bat Swarm 17.Mass Charm 18.Mass Charm 19.Mass Charm 20.Muddle Starting off (levels 1-7) I always start by buying Scaled Helm and Scalemail. Variant is to buy Gauntlets of Brutality instead of scale armor, but I prefer to stay alive to spam Bite. As said, first skill should always be Bite becouse it's probably the best skill in killing demigods with its high burst damage, healing, slowing (great when chasing), armor lowering and low cooldown. After Torchbearer knocks you with Fireball, Bite to undo the Fireball and cause some damage. By it you can easily claim the first flags if there are no more than one demigod against you. It will be always a tough question when to use it. In the very start of the fight in order to lower armor or only when you require the health? When chasing or to finish is not a question tough, as it will slow down, making chasing a finishing. Continue with Mist > Mass Charm* > Bite *(or other way around depending on do you need interrupt or creep graveyard.) Now you have to choose from Poisoned Blood or Bat Swarm, but I usually prefer Poisoned Blood becouse the regen, and you might not yet have manaregen good enough for good use of Bat Swarm. Of course, the poisoned potions are always handy. No matter was it enemy or you who drank it you still get the money. On 7th level upgrade bite. I also buy Vlemish Faceguard as soon as I get the money and have business at citadel. If I visit there with money missing Plenor Battlecrown is also fine. Banded Armor is great, and Unbreakable Boots are lovely if having extra money. Before buying these, make sure your team has already bought tower regen. And do not buy priests in the start. Perhaps now your creeps rock now, but if opposite team is even near dying priests they get xp, and if they happen to blast a Fire Nova to scare off you, they also get gold from the priests. Check this article out. Now you should have a potent vampire, capable of fighting demigods off and pursuing them, interrupting them and fleeing the evil world with mist and setting up a creep farm for short time. You might not always stand on the battlefield, but at least you can Batswarm away. Note: When executing Bite + BS combo always Batswarm in front of the demigod in order to have enough time to hit with auto attack in addition of Bite. Mid- to Endgame (Levels 8-20) Now continue with Mist > Mist > Bite > Poisoned Blood > Bat Swarm > Save > Bloody Haze & Vampiric Aura > Bat Swarm Now you have reached level 16, you can use Bat Swarm + Bite pursuit as really crushing finishing move, and you also have great Bloody Haze and Vampiric Aura skills. While Vampiric Aura gives some life stealing to all allies around you including you, Bloody Haze grants you smashing 10% evasion which is nearly 10% damage reduction, not to mention it makes your creeps invulnerable against enemy creeps and tough enemy for towers while in the Mist. Not to mention your Mist is now very destructive too. It is also possible to save point of level 9 in order to buy both Poisoned Blood & Bat Swarm as soon as they are available. Now there is two possible varitations: Mass Charm as great stun Mass Charm is often horribly overlooked. The one level of Mass Charm is enough for interrupt, but if we max it and get Muddle on top of it we have a great stun. When you have a epic creep fight going around but you have to attend business elsewhere, Mass Charm is faster way to solve it than Mist. Now you let your creeps to do the job themselves, instead of you killing them. You will lose little xp & money tough. And as a greater interrupt: not only it is annoying to find your teleporting to home was interrupted and now you are stunned for three seconds and have their skills dead for a while. And becouse of the long casting time, you have to begin to cast it as soon as the enemy. If he was just having a small health potion, you don't interrupt anything, but you still stun him, which is worth of your casting time, unlike if Mass Charm has only one point on it. I also like to use it when enemy doesn't run with low health. Stun them to make sure they don't try any tricks before your bite recharges. Even if they wake up not dead, they still have cooldowns on their skills, making Shielding, Healing or Grasping and any similar impossible. Mass Charm as a interrupt & Night Walkers Despite of this guide telling Night Walkers are slightly poor, two levels of both Coven and Improved Conversion Aura there's a rather big difference. Six Night Walkers more and they're appearing more frequently and as more powerful. It can make some difference, but I still prefer Mass Charm. =Items= This sort of playstyle will require a large supply of mana, mostly to stay in Mist for a minute or so to use some tactics of the lovely Erebus's Never-Ending Mist (Guide). Not only you will be using Bite a lot and with manaregen good enough you can use Bat Swarm to travel around. (especially while playing Crucible). Heart of Life is also smashing combination with Bat Swarm. Swarm away, use it, and swarm back with full health and mana. It can really surprise. Slayer's Wraps are another favourite item of mine, as they greatly enchance auto attack damage and also have a +10 health regen. =Strenghts= Here are few things where you should now shine. Basicly, Erebus can make world outside citadel a hell for enemy demigods and creeps. 1.Immortality Lord Erebus can be considered near immortal before Regulus/UB gets artifacts. You might not stand against all enemy demigods, especially if you have low health, and if all enemy demigods are in the same place, but with batswarm and mist you should be enable to flee from these without problems. I had once a 3 vs. 3 game where my first death came when every other already had at least three deaths, and even than it was a situation where I was in a middle of creeps and all three enemy demigods, my allies were dead, and their Erebus stunned me for long enough. 2.Demigod killing Despite being general type, Lord Erebus is great killing other demigods. If facing a fresh demigod who isn't going to flee on sight, Bite when you have lost some health. Than just spam Bite. If it flees, Bite and Bat Swarm it to death. If you're going to get killed, flee with Bat Swarm. And as said, you can suddenly spike from a distance, and you can easily doom others by appearing to the mid of the fight. 3.Creep Control With both Mass Charm and Mist you can easily massacre all the creeps. If alone, Mass Charm before entering to Mist, becouse creeps run past you if you go to mist as they ignore you. =Weaknesses= No demigods and playstyles are without flaws. Here are few of the things to watch out while playing with Lord Erebus. As said, you might be bane when there are no towers, when the towers are present, it's another story. 1. Towers and Forts With awfully low auto attack damage and toughness of Erebus, it might be really hard for you to get towers down especially while tower strenght is high. Oh, and did I mention that not a single skill of his affects any sort of buildings?* *Excpect the Bat Swarm, (see discussion), and I prefer to desperately destroy buildings with scepter and use the Bat Swarm to escape the enraged enemy demigods. Also, towers are often positioned in the very edge, so sometimes there is no space where to "teleport" with the Bat Swarm. You should always hire a Rook or two for the demolitions. Really. 2. Escaping with Mist Well, even when this is one of the best things in Lord Erebus, it's also one of the weakest points of him. As you had to escape into mist, you probably have low mana, not allowing you to be long in the mist, and low health. You can't regen health while in mist, while your opponents can, so they can ready themselves to face you again. Sometimes your health is so low that you can't even survive from nearby towers. And I once played against a clever Regulus who simply Mined the place where I were. With the low health, I could nothing more but to get out of the mist and die to the mines, not matter how long I would wait. Category:Lord Erebus Guides Category:Guides